Heather Chandler, Tao Tan, Chunlin Yang et al. find that the cell membrane repair protein MG53 plays a key role in repairing cornea injury. Using mouse and rat models, they show that recombinant human MG53 protects the cornea against injury and enhances healing.

The main components of tight junctions (TJ) are claudins that polymerize and form meshwork architectures called TJ strands. Here the authors present the 3.6 Å crystal structure of murine claudin-3 and show that residue P134 causes a bending of the third transmembrane helix which affects the morphology and adhesiveness of the TJ strands.

Hadas Nevenzal, Meirav Noach-Hirsh et al. present a method for direct detection and analysis of tyrosine autophosphorylation using integrated microfluidics and arrays. They show that their method can be applied to soluble and transmembrane tyrosine kinases as well as to membranes in vitro.

The activation mechanism of metabotropic glutamate receptor subtype 5, a member of the family C G-protein-coupled receptors, is characterized by a combination of cryo-electron microscopy, crystallography and signalling studies.